


Cologne

by Shatterpath



Series: Smut 69 Table & BlackSheildScienceThunder [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Embarrassed Steve, F/M, Gen, Scent Kink, Scents & Smells, Team, Tony Being Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-23
Updated: 2015-01-23
Packaged: 2018-03-08 19:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3220289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shatterpath/pseuds/Shatterpath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somehow, they should have expected this to be the end result of Tony's experiment with using their various scents...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cologne

**Author's Note:**

> The somehow inevitable followup to 'Sensory Play' Takes place some time later!

"Tony." 

"Sir Stark." 

"Iron butt." 

So the time had finally come. They'd certainly taken their dear sweet time about it. Schooling his expression to something clueless and tinged with trepidation, Tony peered at the other male Avengers through the transparent work screen peppered with numbers and figures. Maybe playing dumb would save him.

"...Uh. Why's everyone staring at me?" 

"We know about the cologne." 

It was the first thing Bruce had said and Tony swallowed a grin. If Hulk and/or The Cosmic Hammer hadn't come tearing in here, they couldn't be TOO mad, right?

"The individual ones." 

The grin was winning out over the falsely innocent look and Steve exploded into a waving-armed ball of indignant outrage. "Seriously, you reverse engineered our personal scents and MARKETED them?!"

Waggling an admonishing finger, Tony pushed the monitor aside on its articulated arm. "No, they haven't been marketed YET. Pepper rightly pointed out that, in addition to all of you kicking my ass if I did, some market TESTING had to be done. And I kept it all in house, so to speak."

It took effort for Tony to keep his grin dialed down below 'maniacal' at the way the other four blinked owlishly at him.

"In house?" Clint finally ventured with the sort of fear usually reserved for a minefield… or Natasha on a bad day.

"Sure. It's not like finding volunteers in the diverse ranks of Shield was hard."

Oh, how Tony loved to tweak Steve in particular, grinning wildly at the way the bigger man rubbed the bridge if his nose in the universal sign of 'lord, give me patience'.

"Tony, we have to work with these people!"

"And now they know what you smell like at your absolute best, thanks to me and some scent experts I brought in for the project. Sworn to secrecy of course."

Oh, they wanted to stay mad, they really did, but even stuck up ol' Captain Tightpants was curious now. Tony's smile grew slow and sly.

"You want to see the finished product?"

Not bothering to wait for a reply, Tony hopped up to saunter over to a cabinet and pull out a deep tray with his goodies resplendent within. Clint broke first, hand unerringly reaching for what was actually Tony's favorite bottle. Frozen in clear glass, the bird of prey screamed at the heavens, iridescent eye flashing like a gem, wings arched up to touch tips, making the bottle an oval that was almost a sidewise eye. The cardboard case cradling the base resembled a rocky peak and proclaimed 'Hawkeye' in royal purple letters. Besides, it had let him homage his cherry 1979 Trans Am with the classic black and gold paint.

"There's an arrow in its talons, but discretely, I promise. Yank the bottle out of the base and you'll see."

So Clint did, sloshing the darkly golden liquid inside the glass. The others stared as he shrugged and twisted the purple cap, crackling the perforations apart and taking a deep sniff. A variety of reactions flashed over his face, but Tony knew that he had convinced at least one of them not to kill him.

"Actually, that's really nice."

Plucking up the discarded cardboard base, Tony dramatically cleared his throat and read in his best TV announcer's voice, "Cool and clear, like crisp mountain air and the faintest tang of copper a subtle note beneath a wild, musky tang. Like a feral predator, this scent will entice with subtlety and accuracy."

Grinning wryly, Clint splashed some of the cologne onto his hand and patted it to his jaw and neck. "Cheesy advert, but I could probably get lucky with this."

Curious despite himself, Bruce eyed the other four bottles before hesitantly picking up the softly green one. It was a rounded diamond with a fat teardrop of violet glass in the center of the front of the face. The back had been colored green but the liquid inside bore the color as well. The cardboard base had been Tony's idea, reminiscent of a pair of strong, cradling hands embossed with the word 'Duality'. With an unreadable look, Bruce flipped the bottle over to sound out the words printed there.

"With the earthy scents of intellectual teas dusky and pungent smooth over the warm notes of masculine musk, the sharp tang of danger is a thrilling contrast in the almost acrid scent of something faintly acidic. Both unsettling and comforting, this will be a favorite for all."

Gesturing at the bottle, Tony rambled on, sensing he might have another convert. "See, we used actual tea extracts, but it made it a boring amber color, so we improvised. Turns out that fresh tea leaves may taste like crap, but they make an excellent colorant and don't destroy the other tea notes. The acid notes made the team crazy, but they nailed it with some part of orange rind. Their expertise, not mine."

"Poetic."

"Hey, I can't be good at everything."

The heavy blocky shape of Mjolnir superimposed over a heavy base of red glass that was reminiscent of his distinctive royal cloak made Thor smile, the bottle seeming to shrink in his big hand. "I approve of the name, 'Thunderer'. It is a worthy homage." He didn’t hesitate to crack the seal and take a deep breath of the contents. The slow, raunchy grin made even Tony faintly uncomfortable in ways he didn't want to look at too closely and Steve flushed all the way to his eyebrows. "Yes, I believe my family unit will approve of this," Thor said with haughty deadpan. "At least the lone offering."

Clearing this throat, Tony waved vaguely at the bottle and tried to get the situation back in his control. "C'mon, Big Guy, you didn't even read my poetry on the back."

Thor's arched eyebrow spoke volumes, but he obliged. "Sharply musky with exotic notes of distant places and strongly laced with leather, steel, and ozone dangerously close. Sensitive noses will pick up a faint trace of something icy and sharp, like the scent of snow carried on the breeze from distant mountains or the cold between the stars." For a moment, he only regarded Tony flatly, before a faint smirk softened him. "A fair and poetic royal description."

"Hey, what can I say, you're inspirational, Shakespeare."

Determined to stay on track, Tony snatched out the bottle clearly his, a triangle point down in a flared base not unlike Thor's, but tinged his repulsor blue. At the other two points were shadowy hints to the eyes of the Iron Man suit and the arc reactor was set in glass in the center, also in the blue. His was labeled 'Artificer" and the cologne was a thin, rusty red. 

"Rich with the warm smell of man beneath the machine, let out your inner Iron Man with this enticing blend. Warm and energetic notes almost hide the tang of metal and plasma that is a perfect play on the senses."

"Discrete," Clint noted sarcastically and Bruce huffed in agreement as he pulled up a stool.

"Hey, this one was almost the hardest! Turns out actual rust gave exactly the right tang to the scent and even provided some of the color. Hard to beat out Mother Nature when dealing with scents."

There was a long pause as the other men looked to Steve. Oddly, it was Bruce that spoke, nodding his head at the last bottle. "Just you left, Captain."

For another moment, Steve put off the inevitable before reaching into the tray and eyeballing one more bizarre twist to his legacy. The glass had been cast in the shape of an upthrust crystal… or shard of ice, cracked down the center into a rough 'V' shape to cradle the image of his iconic shield. The cardboard base, in a simple, flat grey, read 'Hero' in letters of red and blue, outlined in white. It was only bottle that contained clear liquid.

"Warm and clean like soap and freshly oiled leather, but with a smoldering, almost dirty edge to it like the scent of distant gunpowder and smoke," Tony intoned, clearly from memory, his eyes strangely gentle. "There are complications beneath the obvious, a draw of mystery like the faintest wisp of the passing of time."

"Sounds about right," Natasha's voice made them all jump and look over to where she lounged in the doorway. Pushing away from her support, the woman sashayed closer. "As these shenanigans are partially my fault, I figured I better check in and make sure Tony hadn't gone too far."

"Your fault?" Steve parroted unsteadily as she placed a hand over his to steady the bottle and twisted the cap off. One didn't need to be her lover to catch on that she was making a show of her part in the strange event, cupping Steve's hand to catch some of the clear cologne and pushing his forearm until the liquid smeared over chin and throat. Nose to his glistening skin, she made a great show of inhaling deeply and humming with pleasure. Grinning at the carnal shift in energies in the room, Natasha leaned away and fired Thor a sly smirk before speaking up again.

"Pepper may have gotten me a little bit drunk and wheedled the sensory play story out of me. I have to say fellas, you all smell pretty damn good."

"Is THAT what you were hemming and hawing over earlier?" Clint exclaimed with a look of amused outrage that made Steve blush again and try to pull his mind out of the gutter.

"That was never supposed to be public domain," Steve murmured, utterly embarrassed but also completely distracted by the woman leaning against him with a warm grin.

"I have no complaints," Tony leered and the whole group stared while he cackled gleefully. "And Cap, your shenanigans in the gym with the lady there made you public domain far as I'm concerned. Had to send the in robots a few times so as not to embarrass the cleaning staff, if you get my drift. No fear though, Dum-e has done far weirder and grosser."

"Oh man, I knew we shouldn't have…" Steve's whining faltered when Nat placed a finger over his lips. 

"Shh. I like you messy and dirty."

The others were amused and fired off teasing 'awwww' sounds to the lovers, but sans Tony, they were clearly worried and curious. Tony, of course, found them all utterly hilarious.

"Oh relax, you chickens. Sweat works as well as any other bodily fluid. Maybe better. And my building gets your laundry too. Keep the bottles, enjoy the curious, hungry attention you've been getting and will continue to get and Pepper thanks you for letting me live. If you ever want to be very rich men, you just let me know, okay?"

Tony's survival ensured, the group relaxed and conversations started up. Clint asked Tony which had been the most popular and Tony explained that they'd tweaked and tweaked until the scents were almost a dead heat. "'Cept Cap. Dunno how, but he still managed to kick out collective asses, even in blind tests. And all I did was reverse engineer the base pheromones and had the scent experts compliment to each of you. Doctor Erskine would be proud. I blame science."

Nat kissed Steve lingeringly; a low chuckle caught between them, and then left him to admire Thor's cologne where he'd rubbed it into his skin in mimicry of what she'd done with Steve. The big Asgardian grinned as she sniffed over his bearded chin and pressed a kiss to the trimmed hairs there. Clint was teased outrageously as she chuckled, "it certainly smells better than you do on a long mission."

"Ha ha, smartass."

"Wear that and you'll get laid for sure."

She spent a few minutes with Bruce while they mutually tried to guess at the myriad of scents trapped in the bottle before kissing Tony's cheek and murmuring a thank you.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, I have a couple guys to drag off so that we can tell Jane all about this."

**Author's Note:**

> Back when Duelist was helping me out with the original sensory play idea, this part of the convo stuck with me and never left. So, all of you now get the benefit of that!
> 
> [10:45:41 AM] Shatterpath: after a fight, Steve stumbles across Bruce's tattered shirt, notes it's clearly a fave and has lots of distinct smells sticking to it. So he steals one of Clint's workout towels, an old glove from the Iron Man suit and it now wondering what he can get of Thor's  
> [10:47:56 AM] duelist925: Chunk of his cape from a fight, or a leather greave torn off in a fight  
> [10:48:41 AM] Shatterpath: the cape might not pick up enough scent, as it's worn away from the body  
> [10:48:45 AM] duelist925: from the excerpt, I assume he's going to be using the smells to try and get at Natasha?  
> [10:48:57 AM] Shatterpath: and something Steve can shove in a pillow, since he's being sneaky  
> [10:49:05 AM] duelist925: Believe me, leather will pick up the scent. Plus Thor will probably smell like leather anyway. Leather, steel, and ozone.  
> [10:49:07 AM] Shatterpath: exactly. The original idea what that Steve figures if there's anyone that would be unfazed by the idea, it's the alien and goes to actually ask him. As one of my threads that popped up in this collection is an actual poly 4some, I'm betting this is how it starts  
> [10:50:19 AM] duelist925: ...huh. *hums*....Tony smells like oil, metal, and a curious tang from his reactor, not too dissimilar to Thor. Clint smells like old fashioned sweat, and a certain hawk themed bodyway from oldspice. Banner smells like old books. Hulk smells like male.  
> [10:50:54 AM] Shatterpath: i went for a glove on Tony on purpose as he's the Builder  
> [10:51:02 AM] duelist925: "You seek to court the fair lady Widow? This underhanded trickery is more suited to Sir Stark, not an upstanding warrior such as yourself! But if you insist, I will aid you in this endeavor."  
> [10:51:06 AM] duelist925: *nodnod* Just figuring out the individual smells. I like details like that  
> [10:52:16 AM] duelist925: BHAHAAHAA *falls over giggling* Oh gods. Most random idea popped into my head.  
> [10:52:34 AM] Shatterpath: honestly, I don't even plan on writing the actual smut, just the building to it  
> [10:52:41 AM] Shatterpath: go for it!  
> [10:53:29 AM] duelist925: "Tony."  
> "Sir Stark."  
> "Iron butt."  
> Tony: "...Uh. Why's everyone staring at me?"  
> "We know about the cologne."  
> "The individual ones."  
> "Seriously, you reverse engineered our personal scents and MARKETED them?!"  
> [10:53:54 AM] Shatterpath: *cracks up* They'd make a killing in pheromones alone  
> [10:54:19 AM] duelist925: "Why the heck is mine labeled "Freedoms Ring"...and "No Bald Eagles Were Harmed In The Making Of This Scent?!"  
> [10:55:21 AM] duelist925: now I wanna design these colognes....*hums*
> 
> And the rest is history…


End file.
